It's the middle of March and some of the bucks are still carrying last year's racks, while some of the other deer I'm seeing have velvet buds.

Seems normal. When I lived in Michigan I found sheds in March. It was clear they were pretty fresh.

I've seen them as late as April in Texas. And spotted fawns in November.

I believe that whitetails have begun to adapt to both climate change and hunting pressure. There seems to be much less of a pronounced rutting period (at least here in Texas) than in decades past. Deer from warm climates (like Axis from India) tend to breed all year-around, so you'll find Axis bucks in all stages of antler growth through the year. No reason whitetails can't adapt to do the much the same -- at least in the lower latitudes.

Two bucks in our yard, one had full antlers the other only had one felt bad for him.

I have seen them still on in April

Last year I collected a shed off of that 10 pointer in the original post, on January 28th.

I am still seeing some with horns . Mine typically start shedding velvet the last week of July.

One of the main reason some Texas counties went to the 13" rule. Give the bucks more age to tighten up the rut! I don't see any spotted fawns in November now. Saw a buck last week that still had antlers. I am seeing a lot nicer antlered bucks now than ever before with the 13" rule.

Texas Mule deer on the Southern border Big Bend used to shed in Feb to March, so the late bloomers would drop a few in April I'm sure. I don't know if that's changed, seems more prevalent in the warmer zones.

I saw a hard antler buck breeding a doe in February 2022.

A friend of mine in NE Kansas had an antlered young buck on camera overnight.

I'm going to go pull cameras right now to see what shows up.


Edit:

No antlered bucks on the cameras, just nubs